The first trip by a female space tourist, who was due to blast off September 14 on a Russian Soyuz vessel bound for the International Space Station, may be put off by four days, officials said Wednesday.
"Everything depends on the (US space shuttle) Atlantis. If the shuttle is launched between September 3-7, then the Soyuz launch will be put off to September 18," Russian Space Agency spokesman Igor Panarin told AFP.
"If the Atlantis launch is cancelled for some reason, then the (Soyuz) launch will still be on September 14," he added.
Anousheh Ansari, a US citizen of Iranian origin, is to fly to the International Space Station on a Soyuz vessel sent by rocket from the Russian cosmodrome of Baikonur.
The weather scuttled NASA's August launch attempts for Atlantis, but officials say they hope a launch can still be made by September 7.
Asked at a press conference why she wore an American and an Iranian flag on her space suite, she said she wanted to recognise the contribution both countries had made to her life.
"I was born in Iran and lived there until the age of 16 and then moved to the United States. So I have a lot of roots in Iran and feel very close to the Iranian people and the culture of the country," she said.
"At the same time I lived longer in the United States and a lot of opportunities and the fact that I am sitting here is something that my adoptive country, the United States, provided for me."
Source: Agence France-Presse
